


The Start

by ohhstark



Series: Forged From the After [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Developing Relationship, Drabbles, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 03:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6737128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohhstark/pseuds/ohhstark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all her companions, Nick’s history resonates most with her. A man out of time. A man with a mind that remembers Before and a body forged from the After.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Start

She looks at Nick Valentine. She really looks. And she wonders. Sometimes, it keeps her up at night, that wondering. What is it like to be a man stuffed inside of a machine? What is it like to be a machine brought to life by a dead man’s wish? She wonders and she aches for him. Of all her companions, Nick’s history resonates most with her. A man out of time. A man with a mind that remembers Before and a body forged from the After. A walking contradiction if she's ever seen one.

She would know. She still remembers. She remembers easy laughter and drive-in movies. She remembers Nate’s kind eyes and gentle fingers. She wakes in the night sometimes, in that darkened relic of the life she used to live, and swears she feels Shaun in her arms. She’ll blink the sleep from her eyes and she will remember other things. Being stuck in a glass and metal prison, pounding her fist against a door as her son is taken away from her and her husband is shot in cold blood. 

And without fail, she will go and find Nick. She will meet his yellow eyes on approach and something like understanding flashes across his synthetic face. She will press herself into his side, always surprised by the amount of heat radiating off him, and they will watch the coming of the dawn. 

The dawn that brings up memories she wants to push away. Memories she wants to clutch to her chest until she can breathe again. Easy touches and butterfly kisses pressed to her temples in the early morning sun. She remembers and she wants. Oh, how she wants. But she shoves the wants down deep inside. She doesn't think about them when Nick smiles at her. She doesn't think about them when he cracks a joke and makes her laugh. And she doesn't think of them when they sit together with the gray sky streaked with pink and orange and lightest purple, hip pressed to hip, and her heart stuck pounding in her throat.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Nick Valentine so much that I want to dedicate a series to him, so here it is. Really, this is just a little project for myself in between writing my multi-chapter Hancock/F!SS fic (I'm just about to start chapter 4 atm). Hope you all enjoy!


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